The Ultimate Guide for Building Muscle

Build Muscle

Do you spend hours at the gym trying to build the perfect muscular body and still aren’t seeing results as fast you’d like to?

Here are a few tips on things you can do to guarantee you’ll get that body:

Exercises

Recovery

Diet

Supplements

Motivation

The best exercises

Hitting the gym day and night seven days a week isn’t the best way to gain muscle. For your workouts to be effective, you need to know which are the best exercises and which method you should adopt.

Body-building exercises will offer the best results. But which are the best ones? And what’s the best method?

Add resistance to the workout:

Adopting techniques that apply resistance and pressure on the muscles will “break” the muscle fibers, causing muscular hypertrophy (muscle mass increase and growth).

The best method is:

Add weight. You should feel the muscles being pressed, so if the workout is too easy you should add some more weight

Rest between sets (1-2 minutes). Result: the recovery time, not too long, will allow you to work the muscles harder, allowing you to perform more repetitions

Perform a sufficient number of sets and repetitions. For example, 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Reduce the speed at which you perform the reps: it increases the pressure on the muscles that you are working

Maintain good posture: it’s very important to maintain good posture and perform the exercises correctly. If you’re not sure you’re performing the exercises correctly, ask for help from an instructor or Personal Trainer. It’s essential to have good posture to avoid injuries, now and in the future

This process takes time. If you’re just beginning, you can gradually start to increase the weight, number of reps and sets and reducing the recovery time between sets as well as the speed at which you perform the reps.

Types of exercises

The idea is to start with exercises that work the entire body and big muscle groups and, over time, include targeted exercises that work each muscle individually.

Examples of full body exercises:

Squats

Deadlifts

Barbell Curls

Bench Presses

Barbell Extensions

Pull Ups

Targeted exercises work specific body parts. Find out some of the best exercises for legs and arms on our blog.

Recovery

Besides physical exercise, there are other things you can do which are equally as important. Recovery is one of them!

During a workout, the tension caused in the muscles will damage your muscle fibers, which is why recovery between workouts and after a workout is essential.

Recovery between workouts

If you don’t let your muscles recover and work muscles that are still sore, the workout will be counterproductive and can increase the risk of injury.

The recovery time between sessions can vary between 24 and 72 hours. If you like to work out every day, try working different muscle groups.

Post workout recovery

In the post-workout, your body will recover and your muscle tissue will be repaired. If you don’t rest, your body will remain in a catabolic state (muscle tissue degeneration).

Get enough rest. Try to sleep between 7-9 hours every night.

In addition to rest, it’s also important to pay attention to your diet, which is essential for the recovery process.

Diet

Diet is essential for muscle building.

Without the right nutrients, you won’t reach the anabolic state (muscle building) that you’re looking for.

That’s why you should increase the number of calories to reach the following ratios:

25-30% Protein: our muscles are essential made of protein, which is why this nutrient will help build and repair muscle tissue. The normal daily recommendation of protein consumption is 1g per kg (body weight), but for someone training to gain muscle, the amount is different

The “king” foods are: eggs (one of the most complete sources of protein with the best absorption rate), salmon, Greek yogurt, milk, tuna, turkey, beef, or chicken.

55-60% carbohydrates: essential for giving energy to your muscles, which is why they’re the ones that give you endurance during workouts. And they even help to absorb protein more quickly

Examples: complex carbohydrates (such as pasta, rice, bread or oatmeal) because they take longer to digest, allowing them to release energy continuously.

15-20% fat: among other things, it helps to maintain high testosterone levels, which is essential for muscle building. And it gives you energy

For best results, eat regularly: preferably every 3 hours so that the body remains in a constant state of muscle building

Supplements

Supplements will help give your muscles the nutrients they need in a fast and concentrated form.

There are many sports nutrition supplements that can help you achieve specific goals (such as increase energy, speed up recovery, improve definition), but to increase muscle mass, there are the basics.

Protein

To help muscles grow, you should give your muscles the same nutrients that they are made of. Protein is the main component of muscles.

When you perform physical exercise, the necessity to consume protein increases. If your body doesn’t have sufficient amounts of protein to support muscle recovery, you’ll enter a catabolic state.

Protein consumption in shake form, besides being easy and more convenient, will help you build, repair and recover muscle tissue.

That’s why you should drink a protein shake soon after a workout. There’s a great variety of flavors available so you’re sure to find one you like.

BCAA’s

Proteins are made of amino acids and BCAA’s (L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine and L-Valine) are the 3 amino acids that make up its structure. That’s why BCAA’s will be effective at repairing and building muscles, increasing the body’s synthesis of protein.

Creatine

It’s one of the most popular supplements among bodybuilders.

It provides explosive energy to the muscles, giving them more strength and making them capable of enduring more intense workouts that place more stress on the muscles, causing them to grow more quickly.

Multivitamin

Besides balancing the immune, hormonal and nervous systems and contributing to general physical and psychological well-being, a multi-vitamin is essential for various functions in our bodies, among them muscle building and recovery.